The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, Dec. 9, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Peter Routledge has cut his rating on Bank of Nova Scotia to "sector perform" from "outperform" after its fiscal fourth quarter earnings came in below forecasts and pointed to more challenges ahead. The Globe's Darcy Keith, Tim Shufelt and Luke Kawa write in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Routledge trimmed his target to $73 from $78. The analyst says he has near-term concerns. "As compelling as [Scotiabank's] relative valuation is, we suspect the stock price has more relative, and probably absolute, downside to it over the next several months. We head off to the sidelines for the time-being." Scotiabank's core cash earning per share came in at $1.31, missing the Street consensus of $1.40. While the bank's exposure to faster-growing emerging economies in Latin America and Asia is the fundamental rationale for owning the stock, the bank has not performed up to market expectations in those regions for all of fiscal 2014, notes Mr. Routledge. "Depressed commodity prices have compromised the defensive attributes and growth potential of [Scotiabank's] highly diversified international platform."